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Ridley turns a horrific true story involving Hurricane Katrina into a scripted drama
The Apple TV+ series Five Days at Memorial explores a terrible question: How did 45 patients die at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina? Executive producer John Ridley has answers.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
How 45 patients died in a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina is the true story that inspired the Apple TV+ series "Five Days At Memorial." NPR TV critic Eric Deggans spoke2 with the executive producer about why this story still resonates.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE3: When John Ridley was first asked to help turn this horrific tale into a scripted drama, he sent a New York Times Magazine story about the tragedy to his father, a retired4 doctor. Ridley, who once served as a commentator5 for NPR, won an Oscar for writing the screenplay to the 2013 film "12 Years A Slave." He had a major question for his dad. What did he think of allegations that some health professionals there euthanized patients rather than abandon them when the hospital was evacuated6?
JOHN RIDLEY: I expected fully7 that he'd say, well, I would never do that. Are you kidding me? His response was, I'm glad I wasn't there, and I'm glad I didn't have to make those decisions. If he's not willing to indict8 or exonerate9, I wasn't going to go into the story and agendize (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We are watching a Category Five hurricane, Hurricane Katrina.
DEGGANS: "Five Days At Memorial" leverages10 an ace11 cast and detailed12 special effects to tell its story. Staff, patients and area residents seeking shelter at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans thought they had survived the worst when Katrina passed through the city in 2005. Cherry Jones plays the hospital official in charge during the emergency, who realizes the hospital hasn't prepared for an important eventuality.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL")
CHERRY JONES: (As Susan Mulderick) There is no plan for evacuating13 the hospital if it's flooded. There's a plan for a mass casualty event, a civil disorder14 event. There's nothing in there about 2,000 people, 200 of them patients, cut off, stranded15 in a hospital without power.
DEGGANS: Ridley, a Black man who's focused much of his work on exploring race, prejudice and oppression, says he wanted to show how systemic bias16 led to poor, often non-white patients getting abandoned.
RIDLEY: There's a very bottom lining17 of human life. And once you do that, once you get into these aren't really people, they're numbers, they're statistics, they're acceptable losses or whatever - are we surprised that something like this would happen? The thing that's really frustrating18 to me more than anything is just can you present a story where the system is the bad guy?
DEGGANS: The series almost didn't get made at all. It was based on a 2013 book which resulted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine article. Producer Scott Rudin tried to develop it as a possible film. Later, producer Ryan Murphy considered it as an installment19 of FX's "American Crime Story" anthology series. Ridley remains20 angry that some TV executives seemed skittish21 about developing a story centered on terrible allegations against doctors during a pandemic.
RIDLEY: That was very painful that, you know, in a world where there's so much media and there's so much storytelling that people are averse22 to anything that challenges, adverse23 to anything that - well, this may take a little bit more to get an audience to come around to it. It's not - no spoiler alert - there's no happy ending.
DEGGANS: Ridley credits fellow executive producer Carlton Cuse, an executive producer on series like "Lost" and "Bates Motel," with calling him in and ensuring the series eventually got made. Despite differing explanations over how the patients died, the series presents compelling evidence that Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon played by Vera Farmiga, oversaw24 euthanizing patients. In real life, a grand jury declined to indict Pou, who denied wrongdoing, leaving open troubling questions about the ethics25 of it all. "Five Days At Memorial" explores these issues carefully. It's crafted by an executive producer who remains angry that certain people still bear the brunt of such problems.
I'm Eric Deggans.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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spoke
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n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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byline
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n.署名;v.署名 | |
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retired
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adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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commentator
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n.注释者,解说者;实况广播评论员 | |
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evacuated
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撤退者的 | |
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fully
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adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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indict
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v.起诉,控告,指控 | |
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exonerate
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v.免除责任,确定无罪 | |
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leverages
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促使…改变( leverage的第三人称单数 ); [美国英语]杠杆式投机,(使)举债经营,(使)利用贷款进行投机 | |
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ace
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n.A牌;发球得分;佼佼者;adj.杰出的 | |
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detailed
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adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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evacuating
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撤离,疏散( evacuate的现在分词 ); 排空(胃肠),排泄(粪便); (从危险的地方)撤出,搬出,撤空 | |
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disorder
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n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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stranded
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a.搁浅的,进退两难的 | |
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bias
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n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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lining
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n.衬里,衬料 | |
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frustrating
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adj.产生挫折的,使人沮丧的,令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧 | |
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installment
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n.(instalment)分期付款;(连载的)一期 | |
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remains
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n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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skittish
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adj.易激动的,轻佻的 | |
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averse
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adj.厌恶的;反对的,不乐意的 | |
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adverse
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adj.不利的;有害的;敌对的,不友好的 | |
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oversaw
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v.监督,监视( oversee的过去式 ) | |
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ethics
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n.伦理学;伦理观,道德标准 | |
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